Professor Wolfgang F. Graier from the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry and Medical University of Graz, will give a talk at the 11th World congress on Polyphenols Applications about the molecular basis of the specificity and efficacy of resveratrol against cancer.

According to Prof. Graier, resveratrol and its derivate piceatannol are found to selectively cancer cell death.Professor Graier team work concentrated on the molecular mechanisms of this cancer selectivity. They observed that the functionally and/or physically tethering of the mitochondria to the endoplasmatic reticulum is greatly enhanced, thus, leading to an attenuated engagement of mitochondria to the cancer cells energy metabolism and ER ATP homeostasis.

The polyphenols take advantage of the enforced inter-organelle coupling and trigger apoptotic cancer cell death by their rather exclusive reduction of mitochondrial ATP content that affects ER Ca2+ handling yielding mitochondrial Ca2+ overload and subsequent cancer cell death.